Oh Dae-su is an ordinary man, who one day is kidnapped
and imprisoned in a hotel room for 15 years, then one day, just as
sudden as he was kidnapped, is released, with new clothes, money and a
cell phone. Thus begins Oh Dae-su’s search for an explanation, for who
was behind it and for revenge. But this is just the second part of the
plan, the kidnapper has for Oh Dae-su.

Winner of the Grand Prix de Jury in Cannes, “Oldboy” is Park’s today
most complex and cruel film. Where all his films study cause and effect,
“Oldboy” is a Kafka-ian ping pong game.

Park has always created extremely fascinating visuals, and here, as the
book is based upon a comic book, he goes over the edge, literary adapts
comic compositions to the screen in terms of mise-en-scene, and creating
his to date most visual film, which has to be seen on the big screen to
be experienced at full force.

Interesting is Park’s directorial choices. He did chose a very popular
comic and did cast the two most popular actors in Korea, but never
altered his auteurist signature nor his leitmotif. As such, one can see
this as an attempt to create an auteurist blockbuster.

Be advised to ignore the rave from Tarantino about this film, as it
reduces the quality of the film. Instead, sit back and enjoy one of
Korea’s greatest filmmakers taking you on a roller coaster ride. Park is
not everyman’s taste, but an acquired taste, which ones you get the hang
of it, never can let go again.

ADDITION
- Both Ultimate and Special - Region 3 versions. NOTE: We understand
that the 'Final Edition' image is exactly the same as the 'Ultimate'

Sound:
The difference between the Dolby 5.1 in the UE and DTS in the SE is
negligible. They pretty much sound the same to me. I've listened to
a few scenes and I can't really tell which is better. Can't compare
with the Tartan releases.

Picture:
The Tartan R0 still looks the best. The SE is probably closer to
what the theatrical presentation looked like, which is why it's so
different from the other releases. The framing seems to be different
in a few scenes also (capture 5). After all the tinting and timing, the differences are
small, but the Tartan R0 seems to have slightly better detail.

Extras:
Well...take a guess. Even without understanding Korean, there's
still plenty of great stuff on the UE. The 3 1/2-hour doc, deleted
scenes, one short film, the Cannes footage and the Harry Knowles
commentary are worth watching, even if you only speak English. The
SE and UE extras seem to have been made as a set (the doc in 2
parts, for example, and the packaging).
There's no overlap between the extras, save for the OST. The UE box
also came with a foam square, which is the same size as the SE box.
Evidently, Starmax intended you to put the SE inside the UE box. The
Tartan R0, though, has a lot of nice stuff, also, which includes the
40 minutes of interviews (which I find strange because, the PAL
interviews run longer than the NTSC ones...) and 3 of the
commentaries. (The one that's missing is the critics commentary, and
the Harry Knowles one.)

Pat Pilon

NOTE2: From H. (Thanks!)

The SE is the one which was under total
supervision of the director (Chan-wook Park) & director of photography (Jeong-hun
Jeong) and which has closer look to the theatrical release as well.
However, the SE got so many complaints from Korean DVD fans for its
heavy grains and blurriness of dark scenes, and the studio (Starmax)
eventually decided to remaster the film for the UE. Bad complaints &
wrong decision... That might be why you're not convinced those boosted
colors. Although director participated commentaries for the UE,
remastering job has nothing to do w/ filmmakers & their artistic
intention. Park even had interviews on a few different Korean magazines,
right before the UE released, saying that he still prefers color scheme
of the SE and it is the closest one to his & DP's vision."

*****

Addition
- The Tartan Region 1. - Well it appears as though Tartan actually
converted to NTSC before transferring which is a nice gesture, but
the DVD (unlike the PAL counterparts) is not progressively scanned
(see combing in last 2 large captures). It also falls short in the
extras department. Stick with the Tartan Asian Extreme from the UK.

*****

Tartan - PAL:

Image
The image is simply incredible, amongst the best ever from Tartan. I
have not been able to find any compression artefacts. There are no
ghosting visible, not even during fight sequences. The only element
of critic should be, that in Image #7, the green of the oceans fades
into her arm.

The image at times grainy and has extreme light / contrast elements
(see Image #6), but based on how I recall it from the cinema, they
are due to the directorial decision and not to blame any transfer
issues.

Sound
All DVD editions I've heard, as well as the film theatrically, has
been extremely dynamic. The new 6.1 DTS ES mix is almost reference
quality, in how subtle background sound plays in the rears. Compared
to both the 5.1 Dolby Digital and the DTS, the 2.0 Dolby Digital is
sadly very tame.

Extras
The film is accompanied by three audio commentaries. Best of these
is the solo Park commentary, where he discusses the film itself,
next is the director / cinematographer commentary, which notes upon
the technical aspects, and finally the director / cast commentary,
which is very chatty and sort of "lets say something".

On disc 2 we first have 48-minutes of production of production
featurettes. In general can be said, that the more specific the
topic is, the better they are.

Next comes 12 interviews, where the main interview is a by Tartan
for this DVD made 22 minute interview with Park, and 10 deleted
scenes with optional audio commentary by Park.